NFIRS Needs Assessment

The Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency/U.S. Fire Administration (DHS/FEMA/USFA) intends to negotiate and award a contract on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)) with PG Public Services (PGPS), LLC, located at 3112 John Marshall Drive, Arlington, VA 22207. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) requires assistance with creating, researching and editing website content for the fire and emergency medical services (EMS) and evaluating our website's user interface under which the content will be published. The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-498) authorizes the National Fire Data Center (NFDC) in the United States Fire Administration (USFA), National Fire Programs (NFP) Directorate, National Fire Data Center (NFDC) to gather and analyze information on the magnitude of the nation's fire problem, as well as detailed characteristics and trends. The act further authorizes the USFA to develop uniform data reporting methods, and to encourage and assist state agencies in developing data and reporting fire damage. To carry out the intentions of the Act, the NFDC established the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) in the mid-1970's. NFIRS has two objectives: To help state, local, tribal and U.S. territory governments develop fire reporting and analysis capability for their own use. To obtain data that can be used to assess and subsequently combat the fire problem at a national level. NFIRS is a reporting standard that fire departments use to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to severe weather and natural disasters. NFIRS is a model of successful federal, state, tribal, U.S. territory and local government partnerships. The database constitutes the world's largest national collection of fire department response incident information. Currently, over 29 million incidents are reported annually from the estimated over 24,500 fire departments in the U.S. Every U.S. state and the District of Columbia report NFIRS data. The Department of Defense, Native American tribal, and U.S. territory governments also participate in NFIRS. During that latter part of CY 2020, the NFIRS system underwent a modernization to enhance system usability and compliance with Federal Information Technology requirements. The objective of this project is to conduct a large scale, thorough, and independent needs assessment for the NFIRS system to provide effective data to effectively address the future American fire problem and meet the changing needs of the fire and EMS service. The assessment must be multi-dimensional and incorporate timeliness as an essential component of effective data. DHS/FEMA has determined that PG Public Services, LLC is the only qualified source to perform this work, possessing the expertise and qualifications necessary to complete the required tasks. The highly specialized area of fire data requires a unique set of expertise to effectively conduct an effective assessment of the NFIRS fire data system. PG Public Services, LLC has the following expertise and experience: Extensive expertise of the capabilities of reporting and collecting fire data including incident demographics, as well as the complexities of the USFA National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) would be required. Personnel with a minimum of 5 years experience working with NFIRS data and demonstrated in-depth knowledge of NFIRS and a deep understanding of how the data can and cannot be used. Have a fully developed analytical database consisting of 10 years of National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data of valid NFIRS incidents. Undertaken an exhaustive literature search in peer-reviewed journals, PhD theses, and published reports to identify factors which may influence outcome of fire or non-fire incidents. Undertaken an exhaustive data sources investigation to identify alternate sources of data for casualties from incidents responded to by fire departments. Demonstrated understanding and can replicate the methodology used by USFA to collect and report NFIRS data. It is the government's intention to issue a purchase order for a 12-month period of performance to complete the requirements of this action. This notice is NOT a Request for quotation (RFQ) for competitive proposals and no solicitation document exists for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit a capabilities statement with technical data, sufficient to determine capability to perform this study. All capability statements received by the closing of this intent to sole source notice will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Submit capability statements (using PDF, MS Word, Excel attachments) to Tommy Albrecht, Contract Specialist at tommy.albrecht@fema.dhs.gov. Statements are due not later than 2:00 p.m. Eastern on August 5, 2020. Telephone calls will not be accepted. Contracting Office Address: DHS/FEMA/NETC Building D, Room 122 16825 South Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, MD 21727 Place of Performance: Contractor's Location Classification Code: B544 NAICS Code: 541611 - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. The small business size standard is $16.5M [average annual receipts for preceding three years].